What did he just say there? Have we entered into that rest? We have NOT entered into it yet. It hasn't occurred. So, what rest is God talking about here? He's talking about the Kingdom of God, which still lies before us. Now, look at the instruction.
We've seen the Sabbath, now, in several different lights. First of all, it commemorates the completion of the Creation Week. God is Creator. Then, in Deuteronomy, we see that it commemorates redemption. We find in the things that we see of Jesus in the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - we see Him acting upon, not the Creation motif, but acting upon the redemption motif.
God has gotten us out of Egypt; now, how do we use the Sabbath? So He magnifies it, by showing that we should use the Sabbath in terms of a redemption motif. We might almost say that the first thing we need to make sure is that we are free and that we stay free. Therefore, we have to strive to do what? Keep the Sabbath! And the third lesson, then, is that it prefigures a time yet future when the people of God enjoy the rest.
So, now we see the Sabbath doing what?
These three areas are the perimeters within which Sabbath use and obedience fall. For there remains yet a keeping of the Sabbath. We won't go into this, but it is really beautiful. That is, what it shows in the Greek here - which, incidentally, is probably the most beautiful Greek in the whole Bible. It is really beautifully written. It shows that Sabbath rest has already begun IF we are striving to use it right. We have already begun to enter into it.
If a person works on the Sabbath, have they entered into it? Obviously not! I'm talking about working and earning a living.
This thing that I just mentioned ties very closely to the term eternal life in the Bible. And eternal life, we find (shown by Jesus Christ), is not merely a period in which there is extended life. That is, life without end. But, to God, eternal life also includes the quality of life being lived. It would be no good to have eternal life if we had to live it like a demon. But eternal life is only good when it is lived as God lives it.
Now, are you starting to live like God? IF you have begun to live like God lives - having His attitude, doing the things that He does in terms of what Christ has showed us - THEN you have begun to enter into eternal life. Therefore, you are already beginning to enter into THE REST. It's a beautiful picture!
The point to these people, to whom this was written, is that the children of Israel did NOT enter into God's rest because they didn't hear God's Word and obey. The illustration is the Sabbath - for the breaking of which both Israel and Judah (as Ezekiel and Jeremiah show) went into captivity. What is so interesting here is that this is written to the First Century church, and it is introduced as an illustration of what they are to do with their lives.
Think about this. If the Sabbath had been done away, the illustration was useless. For those who can think, this is one of the strongest proofs in the entire New Testament that the First Century church - the church of the apostles - were still keeping the Sabbath. And reinforcing its keeping by using it as an illustration of the very Kingdom of God - the rest into which we will enter. Far be it from the apostles to say that it was done away. That's ridiculous. Maybe the spiritually blinded can't see that; but we should be able to see that, and see that clearly.
The original Israelites failed through lack of faith and through disobedience. Then he mentions Joshua and the fact that even this new generation of Israelites that God commended may have entered the land, but they did not enter God's rest because the psalm speaks of another day in which the rest would be entered, the day in the future.
The author here says it is still out there. You can still enter God's rest. You are on the road already, and make sure you enter God's rest, and you can do this by being diligent, by obeying, by being faithful, or as Jesus says, by enduring to the end in your calling.
So speaking of the generation that Joshua led, though their conquest in the end was incomplete, they did far better than their parents. But the author implies that those events that occurred back then are to us only types. We are not to take them in terms of the reality of their incompletion, but we are supposed to think of them as typical, as metaphorical, as symbolic of the journey that we make in order to enter His rest in a spiritual way, in the only way that really matters.
And he then says that the Sabbath is a type of the rest of God, and that in itself is a foreshadowing of the Kingdom. Just so we get all our ducks in a row here. So we can say God's real rest, the one that He has been shooting for all this time, giving us all these examples from the Old Testament and elsewhere, even in the New, that is still future. The rest of God is still future and it is now open to God's elect. And it is still Israel that is journeying to God's rest, but as Galatians 6:16 says, it is the Israel of God.
It is a different group. It is a spiritual group. We call it just generally spiritual Israel. And it is the church, the Body of Christ. Lots of different names, but the same people. God's people whom He has called to take up this journey.
And so we will enter it only if we remain obedient and faithful, unlike ancient Israel.
This has all been a big, long explanation of why I think the conquest constitutes a second type of our spiritual journey toward God's Kingdom. This time, in the second type, it is concentrating on a faithful, obedient people dealing with and overcoming the obstacles in the way. Just as we endeavor to come into full possession of our inheritance, they were trying to come into the possession of their physical inheritance, the land of Canaan. But we in the antitype are coming into our inheritance in the Kingdom of God. And then having done that, at the return of Jesus Christ, we will enter God's rest.
So what I am going to do as a kind of frame for talking about this group of people and how they apply to us in our walk to God's Kingdom, the sermon will focus on the four astounding miracles found in the book of Joshua. That is my frame; that is my organizational template here for this sermon. And my aim in giving these, talking about these four miracles, is to highlight what God is willing to do to aid us in our journey to His rest.
That is, what He is willing to do to aid us in our Christian fight over sin and Satan and this world. Because He accompanied them on their journey in the conquest, just as He is accompanying us. And so the types pop out when you go through the book of Joshua.
As one of my mentors, the late Bob Hoops, declared, the weekly Sabbath is a miniature or foretaste of the annual Sabbath - the Feast of Tabernacles, which is itself a miniature or foretaste to the Kingdom of God in the wonderful world tomorrow, ushering in the New Heavens and New Earth. The Millennium, symbolized by the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles depicts a sanctified thousand years when the world will be at peace, resting from the horrible abuse and mis-governance it had endured for 6,000 years on mankind's tyrannical and irresponsible misrule.
Before that Millennium arrives, God's called-out ones, by faithfully honoring God's weekly and annual Sabbaths, are promised much needed tranquil rest and spiritual reinvigoration for our lengthy and arduous spiritual journey.
In this sermon, Richard made two illuminating points (a long-ranged point and a short-ranged point) about our striving to enter God's rest, as referenced in Hebrews 4:1-11, one of our lead-off scriptures.
The long-ranged point is that we need to be diligent to enter the rest that is the Kingdom of God. That is the rest we are looking for. That is when God will cease from His spiritual labors, when we have come into His rest in the Kingdom.
The short-ranged point is in verse 9 of Hebrews 4: There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. That word rest is sabbatismos - the Sabbath rest. In fact, there is another translation that says: We must therefore keep the Sabbath as the people of God.
But the point I am getting at is that the Sabbath is a type of God's rest. Richard continues, We have a weekly, twenty-four-hour period of time when we can be still. God gives us one day in seven as an opportunity to be still and come to know Him. That is one of the reasons we have the Sabbath day. People of God need this one day - to pull out of the world, to take it easy, to get out of the rat race, and to get into communion with God. We need to use this time, on the Sabbath day: to get into the right attitude, to see godly reasoning, to receive instruction, to see God at work, and to get to know Him.
We have just participated in a week-long annual Sabbath depicting a world at peace which should supercharge us with the will and power to forge ahead on our taxing spiritual journey into our Promised Land - our inheritance - God's Kingdom. Please turn once again to my second favorite scripture in the Bible.
Let us go to Hebrews 4. This section has two points that I want to make here.
Now, what are the two points? The first is a long-ranged point, and the second is a short-ranged point.
1. The long-ranged point is that we need to be diligent to enter the rest that is the Kingdom ofGod. That is the rest we are looking for. That is when God will cease from His spiritual labors, when we have come into His rest in the Kingdom.
2. The short-ranged point is in verse 9: There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. That word rest is sabbatismos - the Sabbath rest. In fact there is another translation that says: We must therefore keep the Sabbath as the people of God. (I am not saying that is right or wrong; but it seems a good translation to me.) But the point I am getting at is that the Sabbath is a type of GOD's rest.
We have a weekly, twenty-four hour period of time when we can be still. God gives us one day in seven as an opportunity to be still and come to know Him. That is one of the reasons that we have the Sabbath day. People of God need this one day - to pull out of the world, to take it easy, to get out of the rat race, and to get into communion with God. We need to use this time, on the Sabbath day: to get into the right attitude, to see godly reasoning, to receive instruction, to see God at work, and to get to know Him. (Those are the five points that I just mentioned a few minutes ago.)
We have the Sabbath day to be still; but it is not just limited to the Sabbath day. Those of us, who are lucky, find time during the week (and, during the year) when we can be still. This time of the year is one when we need it the most. That is, to be still before the Passover - to get our minds in the right attitude and get the right instruction so that we are in the proper way of thinking (in the proper mode) for the Passover and the holy days.
It is not restricted just to now. Also before Trumpets and Atonement, and the Feast, is another time when it would be good for us to find a time of stillness. Any time, when we are in need of self-evaluation, is a time when it is best to be still.
We have Christ as our example of being faithful; and then we have the man Moses who is also faithful. We can look at both examples. They are wonderful examples. But Moses led the people into the wilderness to bring them into the Promised Land, a type of our journey to the Kingdom of God. And these people heard the gospel, as we see in chapter 4, verses 1 and 2 there. They heard the gospel, but they did not mix it with faith. They did not believe the gospel that was preached to them. They did not believe the truth of what God was doing with them.
And so what did they do? They rebelled, they disobeyed. And God said, Ok, if this is the way you're going to be, you're all going to die in the wilderness. So He destroyed them and they did not enter His rest. Paul tells us, let us take a look at this example and learn something from it. And the thing we need to learn from it is that we have heard the gospel, we have to mix it with faith, that is, we have to take what we have heard, be faithful, and obey God. Do the things that He wants us to do, in fear that we will not make it, so that we will make it. And be diligent about it! Have some zeal!
That is what He wants us to do. Take what we have learned, and what we continue to learn, mix it with faith, that is, trust and confidence in God that He can get you where He needs you to be and where you want to be, which is the Kingdom of God. Trust Him that the instructions that He gives you in the Bible are apt for your situation. What you need to do, how you need to be, what your attitude needs to be, and do it, obey it, follow it.
And you know what that is going to do? That is going to land you in His rest. The Promised Land is yours. God will not destroy you in the wilderness. The Kingdom is open to you. Hear the gospel, add some faith, follow the instructions, enter His rest. Sounds easy, does it not? We know it is not. But that is the formula. Hear, faith, follow, firstfruits. Simple to say; hard to do. But that is the general formula.
Ah ha! The last part of Isaiah 59:21, that talked about all of this being forever and ever has a catch. The catch is found here in verse 11, that even though we have been offered to come and enter this rest, and we have actually accepted this offer, that we still have to be diligent in order to enter the fullness of it.
It is offered to us, and the offer is good and genuine, but there is always that reciprocal bit of action that God requires. What he says here is we have to be diligent to enter it. The word here means labor. We have to labor, or strive, or work to enter that rest. That is what we have to do. God has done everything that He can do, but there is that little bit of work - actually it is a lot of bit of work - that we have to do. It seems like a lot of bit of work to us. It is really in the grand scheme of things not all that great, but for us it just seems that way. It is so hard because we are fighting against our human nature. But we have to do something, and this is where tend and keep come in.
That is why the two concepts are in the same verse. God put man in the Garden. He allowed him to enter His rest, to tend and keep it. That is where we come in - to tend and keep it. This brings us back to Genesis 2, where we have to define what tend and keep means. In these two verbs, tend and keep, are the essence of God's instruction regarding how we are to respond in obedience to Him. Remember, He provided the Garden, He provided us His Spirit, He has done everything He can to provide us the perfect environment, and now it is our turn to respond. Our response is in these two words, tend and keep.
Now, this exhortation in Hebrews 4 is in reference to Numbers 32 and also a portion of Joshua and Deuteronomy regarding the conquest of the land of Canaan. God had told them that they were to take the land. They were to enter their rest, right? The Promised Land is a type of the Kingdom of God, and it said earlier in Hebrews 4 that they had not entered that rest. Hebrews 4:11 is the transition from Paul's explanation of them not entering that rest, and our need to enter that rest, to this exhortation not to try to fool God.
That is the same example of disobedience that the children of Israel did in not conquering the land - in not entering the rest, as God had commanded them to.
Today, in the church of God, we are not subduing another nation. We are subduing ourselves. It is as if we are the Canaanites - well, our carnal nature is like the Canaanites. The works that God has given us to do is to root out and conquer everything in us that does not conform to the image and character of our own Joshua - Jesus Christ, our King and Captain. We are, like the children of Israel were supposed to do, to search out every hiding place, under every rock, behind every tree, and in every cave, nook, and cranny of the land to get the Canaanites and their false idolatrous religion out.
If we find sin in ourselves, we are to bring it out into the light of day, and put it to the sword. Paul had just been saying, Look! We've been raised to this wonderful height. We are hidden with Christ in God. Therefore,
This rendering of the principle that is given there in I Samuel 16:7 is much more profound because it shows that there is absolutely no possibility - that it is absolutely vain to deceive ourselves - into thinking that we can somehow escape the notice of God. All insincerity, unbelief, and hypocrisy will be detected by Him.
On the more positive side, we are meant to understand that since are hearts are perfectly open before Him, that we should be sincere and make no attempt to deceive others, because that sin is in reality against Him. All sin is against Him because it is His law that is being violated and all of us are His creation. Everything belongs to Him.
Suppose some little girl had a little doll and you destroyed that doll. On one hand the sin is against the little girl because she lost a cherished item, something that was close to her. But even more so, the sin was against the little girl because the doll belonged to her. Though some damage is against the doll, the greater damage, the greater sin is against the one who owned it.
That is the way it is with us and our sins. People get caught in our sins, but the real sin is against God because He owns us, all of us, the whole creation.
Let us add another thought here. Do not lose your place here in Hebrew 4. We are just going to add something to it out of the Psalms. It is another thought that reinforces the thought that is there in Hebrews 4.
The apostle is writing that we can actually begin to have a foretaste of the rest that is coming. His rest is the Kingdom of God; not just the Millennium. It is that times of refreshment. And so, we can have a small foretaste of it. We cannot enter into its fullness because that is not going to occur until Jesus Christ returns.
We can exercise our faith now, yield to His Word, and use the gifts that He has made available to us. And if we do, that foretaste will be produced.
He tells us in John 10 that He came so that we could have life and have it more abundantly. There is no reason we cannot exercise ourselves to make every effort to do that here so that we can ensure that we will leave the Feast of Tabernacles having experienced a small foretaste of what it is going to be like in the Kingdom of God.
It can be done. God does not give us impossible things to do. If He says that we can have that foretaste, we can already enter into it, to a limited degree, we can do it. And if we do, we are going to go home knowing that we have had the best feast we ever had.
And so that responsibility is on us. Let us try to make sure that we do what we can to make this one super-sensational, spiritual Feast.
Now this is a very theologically rich passage, but the essential truth, here, is that God's rest - the Kingdom of God - is still before us. We have not entered it yet. The only One who has entered God's rest is Jesus Christ. And it is kind of interesting that He has not stopped working because we have not entered that rest yet.
However, Paul gives a very stern warning here. He says that what befell the Israelites in the wilderness (and they fell by the tens of thousands, through sins of various sorts through their wilderness trek) that same fate could befall us also. The lesson here is that if we want to enter God's rest, of which the Sabbath is a type, of which the Promised Land was a type, we have to continue walking, and we have to continue working to overcome sin. We have not yet entered God's rest. Have you noticed?
So our work, as verse 10 says, has not yet ceased. The work is not over until we enter the rest. God worked six days, and He rested on the seventh, and hallowed it for us, to give us right there in the second chapter of the Bible what He wants us to do.
So Paul's advice, keep up the good work all the way into the Kingdom of God.
One of the critical elements for us here is to understand the way the Bible approaches belief and obedience and unbelief and disobedience. Simply put, it is this: If your Bible has a marginal reference, and you look at those words belief and unbelief, you will find that the translators have interchanged the words. In other words, what they picked up from the intent of Paul's writing here is that, as far as God is concerned, there is no difference between unbelief and disobedience, believing and obedience. How can that be? If a person really believes, he is convicted, and he will obey. That is, works will be produced in those that believe.
On the contrary, a person may say he believes, but does not obey, and a work that is in agreement with God's Spirit is not produced. That kind of person merely has a preference, and is in reality disobedient regardless of saying what he believes.
We are told that we are to be partakers of Christ, and that entails if we hold to the beginning of our confidence with the foundation, as I mentioned. We are told not to neglect our salvation or let this world take your crown. We must not allow our hearts to become hardened. He tells us that we should not be like those that came out of Egypt. They saw the miracles of God and the awesome power of God, and then rebelled against Him and troubled Him forty years and died short of the rest that was set aside for them.
Our journey, brethren, is to the Kingdom of God and our rest is the Kingdom of God. Who is it that could not enter that rest? Those who hardened their hearts.
The apostle Paul knew that he was on a journey, and that he had two hearts, or two ways of living, in him. One of these hearts was to fight against and the other was to fight for.
God is metaphorically building a bed to give us rest in the future. And, no matter how much we grow over the ages, that bed will never become too short. Unlike today's world system, the rest God will provide us will be eternally sufficient.
We have read of that unbelief. That is the unbelief of which we read in Isaiah 28, the contemptuous disregard for God's message as nothing more than a child's nursery rhyme. We can be sure that God will answer that contempt with judgment - that no one has truly advanced beyond consequences.
But, we may also be sure that God's judgment will be in mercy. For our part now we need to remember the bottom line of the parable at the end of Isaiah 28, the last verse. God is:
God's teaching is as true as His Spirit is powerful. If we serve Him faithfully, He will provide us rest.
The rest of chapter 3 and the first part of chapter 4 he is telling them, You guys had better make careful that you don't miss out on the Kingdom of God. You need to be faithful. This is a very strong admonition for them to put their heart into things.
He is talking about the way the Israelites were in the wilderness. We have got a far higher potential than the Israelites in the wilderness.
He is talking about the Israelites in the wilderness. They all died. He says there in verse 17 of Hebrews 3, their corpses were scattered throughout the wilderness. They did not make it to the Promised Land and spiritually, that could be us too. Our corpses could be scattered in the wilderness of this world if we are not diligent. So he says,
This is a warning! The warning is, that just as Israel failed to enter that rest, there is a possibility that if we are not diligent, we could also fail, even though the big neon light is still blinking, even though the goal is still before us, even though we have been called to it; if we are not diligent, we could fail to enter.
